SOPA Images/Getty Against all odds, blockchain technology has gone mainstream. Bitcoin has become a household word, and financial institutions around the world invest in cryptocurrencies or allow their customers to do so. Meanwhile, NFTs have attracted the patronage of celebrities like Eminem, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Curry.
But despite all the publicity, blockchain technology is still extremely arcane. It’s truly understood only by talented engineers — many of whom were early adopters of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether — and can be overwhelming for the layperson. Get the CNET Culture newsletter
Below is an alphabetical glossary of blockchain terms you might find useful. Note: It’s far from an exhaustive list of terms and phrases, but covers the basics. Airdrop
An airdrop is when a company drops cryptocurrency or an NFT directly into your wallet. Instead of an initial public offering, blockchain services will launch a token and airdrop users who have used that service in the past. This can be done for several reasons: It can be pure marketing, as airdrops raise awareness of a token which people can then invest in, or it can be to provide governance tokens for a DAO .
A recent example: The Ethereum Name Service allows users to change their wallet number to a wallet name (like CNET.eth). In December, it launched its own ENS token , airdropping an amount to everyone who had used the service. The more people had used Ethereum Name Service, the more tokens they were airdropped — in some cases were worth tens of thousands of dollars. Apeing
To “ape” into something is to recklessly invest in the hopes of short term profit. Everyone knows scams are abound, and careful investors do research to vet a cryptocurrency or NFT project to ensure it’s safe. To “ape” into a project is to see its value rising and to throw money into it hoping for the best. Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency that’s not bitcoin or ether . Many are also known as ” shitcoins. ” Bag
Your bags are investments you hold over a long period of time, often ones that have performed poorly. “Hopefully the bullrun pumps my bags.” Binance
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, where people buy and trade cryptocurrencies. It’s under investigation by the US Department of Justice and the IRS for tax evasion and money laundering. Blockchain
A blockchain is a “distributed database.” In simpler terms, it’s a decentralized ledger that records information in digital “blocks.” Once a block is mined and added to the chain, it can’t be altered, thus blockchains offer public records of unchangeable data.
There are many different blockchains which feature varying degrees of decentralization, efficiency and security. Many have their own cryptocurrency — for instance, ether is a cryptocurrency built on the Ethereum blockchain. Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency , built on the Bitcoin blockchain. It was created in 2009 by a person or group of people under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto . Only 21 million can ever be minted, around 18.9 million of which are already in circulation . Burning
Cryptocurrencies are “burned” by being sent to a wallet that can only receive them and not send them. Burn mechanics are often utilized to cause a deflationary impact: the fewer tokens in circulation, the more scarce the ones investors hold become. Buy the dip
This refers to buying more of an asset after its price as fallen. For instance, a bitcoin holder might “buy the dip” if the price falls by $10,000. Candlesticks
Cryptocurrency graphs that chart price movement feature green and red bars — green for price going up, red for price going down — which are sometimes referred to as “candlesticks”. Green and red candlesticks. Cold Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet not connected to the internet. These are safer and less prone to scams . Cross-chain
The ability to send data, tokens or assets from one blockchain to another. This is different from ” multi-chain ” services, which are built to work on multiple blockchains. Cryptography
A form of information encryption, where data can only be unencrypted with a key. Blockchains using Proof of Work protocols rely on the solving of incredibly complex cryptography puzzles for new blocks to be mined and verified. Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency is a token that’s native to a blockchain . Cryptocurrencies are typically minted with each new block mined. For instance, each new block of Ethereum mined comes with a reward of two ether tokens as compensation to the miner.Cryptocurrencies are a type of […]
source Bitcoin glossary: Every blockchain and cryptocurrency phrase you need to know
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